Tunnel helps hundreds of Taliban out of the political wing of the Prison

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - the Taliban staged an escape from prison bold here early Monday, releasing political prisoners at least 476 through a long tunnel, according to the Director, GEN Ghulam Dastagir Mayar.

He said that security authorities had discovered the morning that the prisoners of the political wing of the building had disappeared, and that the authorities had found just the tunnel. "We do not know if the tunnel was dug from the outside or inside the prison," he said.

The Kandahar prison is the largest and most important prison in the South of the Afghanistan, and it is home to Taliban who were captured in Zabul, Oruzgan and Kandahar, including certain Taliban and several lower-level Taliban personalities, according to security working with prison officers.

It was the second time, there was a major break from prison to prison Sariposa in Kandahar. The Taliban orchestrated by the release of 1,200 prisoners, of whom 350 were members of the Taliban, June 13, 2008, directed by an attack on the prison which killed 15 guards.

The break comes at a crucial moment in the struggle of the Taliban in the South of the Afghanistan. Pushed out of their strongholds in the rural areas outside the city, and under the pressure of a large number of NATO troops that have heightened in the villages, they were able to maintain a presence, but nothing close to the dominant role that they had even a year ago.

Bring a large framework of experienced veterans, which many will have their skills in prison, will give the Taliban flexibility leadership and human resources to send fighters in new neighbourhoods where there are less than NATO troops and reinforce their numbers to those closest to Kandahar.

A spokesman for the Taliban to the South and West of the country, Qari Yusuf Ahmadi, said that a total of 541 prisoners had escaped and that among them were 106 Taliban commanders. "Now,"they are in shelters, he said."".

In a clever propaganda ploy, the Taliban gave a captivating description of the escape from prison in a statement that they sent to the news media before of any comment by security authorities who were just discovering the tunnel.

Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said in the statement: "we have planned and worked on this during five months, and the tunnel is 360 metres long," he said. "It was very important for us. We have tried to leave no one behind, not even a patient or former political prisoner. ?

"Our Mujahedeen have worked in a very careful manner" as not to be discovered, said Mr Mujahid. The tunnel wound under the control of security outside the prison and a main road.

11 H Sunday, three Taliban prisoners who said were the only ones who knew, "went for a cell to wake up people and each of them directors of the tunnel." The Taliban more were on hand as the prisoners emerged out of the dirt and dust from the tunnel to guide prisoners stunned waiting vehicles. Also on hand were Taliban fighters and suicide bombers in the case where the forces of security woke and there was a struggle.

"Fortunately we do not use them," said Mr Mujahid. "The security forces did not know until the sunrise."

Taimoor Shah reported from Kandahar and Alissa j. Rubin in Kabul, in Afghanistan.

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Taliban tunnel breakout tracks Afghan captors - The Guardian

Kandahar prison: the tunnel circumvented the control points and goes directly to the wing housing held "political". Photo: AFP/Str/Getty Images

NATO and Afghan forces launched a huge operation to try to resume 475 prisoners, almost all Taliban insurgents, who organized an extraordinary discussion mass prison by using a tunnel.

Officials have said that the detainees had escaped through the tunnel dug from a House wing of the prison where political prisoners are detained in Kandahar.

In an e-mail, Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said the tunnel was 1,050 m long (320 meters) and took five months to build, "bypassing enemy check posts and the main road from Kandahar-Kabul leading directly to the prison policy".

He said only three insurgents inside the prison had known the plot. They helped to ferry the prisoners from the prison in an operation for a period of four years and a half hours.

He said that by 3: 30 a.m. on Monday morning, the whole political wing of the prison was emptied of inmates. These had been conveyed "secure destinations" by a fleet of cars that had organized Taliban.

The message, written in almost perfect English, sings on the failures of the security forces: "the most amazing thing throughout the operation, as reported by respondents Mujahedeen, was that all the enemy forces inside the prison"which includes foreign invaders, have not noticed the results of the operation even four hours later and therefore has not released statements.

"Mujahideen had also placed a martyrdom research group near the prison, including the need did not arise because of inaction by the enemy."

Amir Mohammad Jamshad, the head of prisons in Kandahar, told the Guardian that the tunnel is a major undertaking by the insurgents, who have been unable to use any heavy machinery, because it might have drawn attention to their work.

Tooryalai Wesa, the Governor of Kandahar, said that prison security forces had "breached their duty", but the strenuous efforts were already underway to recapture prisoners.

"Some of the escaped prisoners were taken over by the forces of security during search operations and important operations were launched inside and on the outskirts of the city of Kandahar for the rest of them," said.

He also appealed to residents of Kandahar to call the tipoffs on a special hotline set up by the authorities escaped prisoners.

Despite his insistence that work resume as many prisoners would be done more easily by the biometric detailed records held on all men, including fingerprints and iris scans, discussion is a terrible for the efforts of the Afghan Government and international blow in key province.

A member of the Kandahar provincial Council, Hajji Hematullah, said that, although some prisoners may still be in the city, many others would have a direct line to the security of the Pakistani border.

Many hardened insurgents release comes just before the "season of combat" in the summer and could potentially reverse some of the gains of NATO during the winter in intensified operations to kill and capture insurgents as much as possible.

It is also the second time a considerable number of prisoners have managed to escape prison in three years only. In June 2008, the Taliban stormed the prison, with a suicide attack to break a hole in a prison wall. The operation allowed 870 inmates, including 390 insurgents, to escape.

The discussion was followed days of intense fighting in the outskirts of the city after that the insurgents fled to areas where they were immediately able to take up arms against the NATO forces.

The ruins of the prison was largely reformed and improved in an effort to prevent such an outbreak ever again.

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Fears of Taliban Fan of Infiltration into Afghan Forces

The Taliban rushed to take responsibility for the attack, stating that the shooter was a sleeper agent planted to kill NATO soldiers. Afghan police and the army scrambled to find ways to eradicate the insurgents in their ranks. Screening of new recruits and soldiers escalated.

But when a joint investigation was completed some time later, Afghan and American investigators concluded that the gunman, a man named Ezzatullah in a small village in the Province of Nangarhar, where the attack occurred, was not a sleeper agent at all, but a good soldier overcome by personal stress, including the insistence of his father that he accepts a contract of marriage with a young girl.

Fears about infiltration of the Taliban in the forces of Afghan national security arose again this week after the insurgents in Afghan military uniforms attacked three locations in highly secure Government. The latest attack came Monday the Ministry of defence headquarters in downtown Kabul and killed two Afghan soldiers.

The attacks have fuelled concerns among Afghan officials, who are uncomfortable about their own safety and the fate of a country whose military and they worry the police forces could be impregnated with enemy insurgents. Some in the Senate on Wednesday called the resignation of the Minister of defence, Abdul Rahim Wardak, calling it unable to defend his own Department, much less the country.

But preliminary investigations show that the authors of at least two of the attacks were not used members of the Afghan army or the police, according to two senior intelligence officers NATO and an advisor to NATO informed on investigations. They are also suspicious that the person in the attack remaining was a member, while the investigation continues.

In fact, responsible intelligence not gathered any evidence suggesting that the infiltration is very widespread, as Taliban claims according to the officers, who spoke the condition of anonymity because of the nature of their positions advising Afghan forces. Nevertheless, officials know that the Taliban claims of infiltration breed distrust and are difficult to refute.

"Their goal is to separate the coalition of the Afghan national army, and is an excellent tool for them, whether they have or not," one police officer said.

Infiltration or not, the recent attacks were exposed other security issues, including the severity of the controls for the identification and research to points of control and input and the easy availability of official-looking uniforms and military equipment in stores and bazaars throughout Kabul and the provinces of the body. Investigators were also examining if any guards took bribes to let the insurgents across.

"At least two of them are very clearly the guys who had already obtained a uniform and had been helped," said NATO's Security Advisor. "This is really what we are concerned about - is the enemy capable of penetrating through this filtering system, or that they are actually able to co-opt or use uniforms and equipment that they could collect out on street weaknesses and exploit them in the physical security of these sites."

Concerns about the sleeper agents still run high among afghans and NATO officials. After the attack of November in Nangarhar, forces Coalition intensified abruptly training Afghan intelligence agents. It is their work to identify possible insurgents between Afghan forces and look for signs of military personnel who, acting either financial or personal stress or threats to their families, might fall under the influence of the Taliban. About 200 officers are now in the field, and this number is expected to more than double by the end of the year.

Since September 2009, when the NATO forces began to intensify the efforts to strengthen the national security forces, all recruits are required to go through a process of screening of eight steps. In it, recruits must undergo a criminal history and testing audit and must submit two letters of the elders of the village to the respondents for their character.

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Fears of Taliban Fan of Infiltration into Afghan Forces - New York Times

The Taliban rushed to take responsibility for the attack, stating that the shooter was a sleeper agent planted to kill NATO soldiers. Afghan police and the army scrambled to find ways to eradicate the insurgents in their ranks. Screening of new recruits and soldiers escalated.

But when a joint investigation was completed some time later, Afghan and American investigators concluded that the gunman, a man named Ezzatullah in a small village in the Province of Nangarhar, where the attack occurred, was not a sleeper agent at all, but a good soldier overcome by personal stress, including the insistence of his father that he accepts a contract of marriage with a young girl.

Fears about infiltration of the Taliban in the forces of Afghan national security arose again this week after the insurgents in Afghan military uniforms attacked three locations in highly secure Government. The latest attack came Monday the Ministry of defence headquarters in downtown Kabul and killed two Afghan soldiers.

The attacks have fuelled concerns among Afghan officials, who are uncomfortable about their own safety and the fate of a country whose military and they worry the police forces could be impregnated with enemy insurgents. Some in the Senate on Wednesday called the resignation of the Minister of defence, Abdul Rahim Wardak, calling it unable to defend his own Department, much less the country.

But preliminary investigations show that the authors of at least two of the attacks were not used members of the Afghan army or the police, according to two senior intelligence officers NATO and an advisor to NATO informed on investigations. They are also suspicious that the person in the attack remaining was a member, while the investigation continues.

In fact, responsible intelligence not gathered any evidence suggesting that the infiltration is very widespread, as Taliban claims according to the officers, who spoke the condition of anonymity because of the nature of their positions advising Afghan forces. Nevertheless, officials know that the Taliban claims of infiltration breed distrust and are difficult to refute.

"Their goal is to separate the coalition of the Afghan national army, and is an excellent tool for them, whether they have or not," one police officer said.

Infiltration or not, the recent attacks were exposed other security issues, including the severity of the controls for the identification and research to points of control and input and the easy availability of official-looking uniforms and military equipment in stores and bazaars throughout Kabul and the provinces of the body. Investigators were also examining if any guards took bribes to let the insurgents across.

"At least two of them are very clearly the guys who had already obtained a uniform and had been helped," said NATO's Security Advisor. "This is really what we are concerned about - is the enemy capable of penetrating through this filtering system, or that they are actually able to co-opt or use uniforms and equipment that they could collect out on street weaknesses and exploit them in the physical security of these sites."

Concerns about the sleeper agents still run high among afghans and NATO officials. After the attack of November in Nangarhar, forces Coalition intensified abruptly training Afghan intelligence agents. It is their work to identify possible insurgents between Afghan forces and look for signs of military personnel who, acting either financial or personal stress or threats to their families, might fall under the influence of the Taliban. About 200 officers are now in the field, and this number is expected to more than double by the end of the year.

Since September 2009, when the NATO forces began to intensify the efforts to strengthen the national security forces, all recruits are required to go through a process of screening of eight steps. In it, recruits must undergo a criminal history and testing audit and must submit two letters of the elders of the village to the respondents for their character.

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The Afghan Taliban intelligence network embraces the Los Angeles Times - New

Reports from Kabul, Afghanistan - The Taliban has deepened its infiltration of Afghan institutions and sharpen its surveillance of Afghan troops and foreign it seeks to exploit a step ahead in the war of the information that will help decide the fate of the insurgency.

A large part of the structure of the Taliban has been destroyed or dispersed by the invasion led by the United States 2001, which forced the militant group of power. Intermediate level commanders have been hit in recent months by Western forces, and responsible for NATO say that leadership-based Pakistanis has been undermined by infighting.

But, as the Afghanistan has floundered in recent years, the movement has rebounded, in part by the refocusing on its centuries-old skills by exploiting the links tribes and family, using foot messengers and keep an eye on his enemies.

The Taliban use the information it gathers to probe for the openings for the suicide attacks, to monitor the movements of Western and Afghan forces and hamper efforts to improve public services to help the Government to establish credibility for civilians.

But analysts also point to a key weakness: even if a new generation of militants is more apt at using the Internet, cell phones and social media, Taliban decentralized structure makes it difficult to synthesize information and to act in a unified way.

Western experts and Taliban agree on the importance of the information warfare as the United States aims to withdraw in 2014. The efforts of activists are based on an understanding that dates back to the days governing Taliban under Mullah Mohammed Omar.

"Mullah Omar said the first power in Afghanistan is information", said a Western military official in Kabul, the Afghan capital, which is familiar with the issues of information, citing officials former Taliban who knew leader of long standing of the movement. "He who controls the information control the will of the people."

Western forces and their Afghan allies to lead their own extensive intelligence operations. U.S. drones constantly circle the sky, and the monitoring of the electronic communication is ubiquitous. The Afghan Government has also claimed some success to thwart attacks.

But the Taliban is capable of maintaining a presence, even in those regions of the country who are most hostile to it. Hazara ethnic and religious Shiite Daikundi province, which for years was seen as a refuge against the Sunni Pashtun-dominated Taliban, the Governor said that he knew that the militants were close by.

In "night letters" distributed to homes the civilian warned insurgents only step to contribute to community projects and truckers not way to do business with the Government. "All that would happen in the local Council or the Government, they would know about it in two or three hours,", said Sultan Ali Oruzgani, a former Governor of Daikundi. "In the field of my power, they had infiltrated the army, the local government and the Parliament."

Activists have reached behind the stone walls high of Pul-i-Charki prison, which houses of Taliban and agents of Al-Qaeda, including some returned from the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"There are people in uniform on the payroll,", said an insider in the prison compound is of Kabul, who spoke the condition of anonymity, fear will endanger. "The black turban is always watching us."

The source, which is in centres of detention Afghanistan for years, said sympathizers among the help of guards detained Taliban remain in contact with ground contacts. Doctors, among the few outsiders with access to the prisoners, also help.

"Stuff is brought to them, all ways to communicate," said the Insider. "They have Internet wireless." They distribute and analyze video clips of operations. ?

Experts and former officials point out evidence of infiltration of the police and the Afghan army.

"In terms of entering the Afghan security forces, they had success more, using family ties and the resentments and against foreigners," said Arturo Munoz, a former analyst for the CIA who is now studying Afghanistan for the Rand Corp..

A U.S. military classified report published by WikiLeaks, a commander of the local police in the province of Paktia has been quoted as saying that the Taliban in the region was led by a member of the local government who have provided information on both sides.

Another report said a commander of the Haqqani network was the son of a colonel of the national police. Often, families place a son in the Taliban and the other in the army to cover their bet, said several analysts in Kabul.

"They know where the Government does not provide justice, so that they provide courts." "They know where the police are predatory, so that they provide an alternative," said Andrew Exum, a former agent of special forces in Afghanistan which is now at the Centre of a new American security, a Washington think tank.

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